“I am just now enabled to give you some intelligence
concerning myself. In this topsey-turveying of ministers, Wynn was very anxious, as he says, ‘to
pick something out of the fire for me.’ The registership of the
Vice-Admiralty Court in St. Lucia was offered, worth about 600l. a-year. He wrote to me, offering this, or, as an alternative, the
only one in his power, a pension of 200l.; but, before
my answer could arrive, it was necessary that he should choose for me, and he
judged rightly in taking the latter. Fees and taxes will reduce this to 160l.†, the precise sum for which I have hitherto
been indebted to him; so that I remain with just the same income as before. The
different source

* March 27. 1807.

† The deduction proved to be 56l. reducing it to 144l.

Ætat. 33.

OF ROBERT SOUTHEY.

73

from which it is derived is, as you may suppose,
sufficiently grateful; for though Wynn could till now well
afford this, and I had no reluctance in accepting it from one who is the oldest
friend I have in the world (we have been intimate for nineteen years), he has
now nearly doubled his expenditure by marrying. . . . . This, I suppose, is
asked for and granted to me as a man of letters, in which character I feel
myself fully and fairly entitled to receive it; and you know me too well to
suppose that it can make me lose one jot of that freedom, both of opinion and
speech, without which I should think myself unworthy, not of this poor earthly
pittance alone, but of God’s air and sunshine, and my inheritance in
heaven.

“I sent you the Specimens, and shall have to send you,
owing to some omissions of Bedford’s, a supplementary volume hereafter, which will
complete its bibliographical value. Of its other merits and defects, hereafter.
It will not be long before, I trust, you will receive Espriella: the printer promises to
quicken his pace, and I hurry him, anticipating that this book will give you
and my other friends some amusement, and deserve approbation on higher grounds.
Thank you for all your kindness to Harry. . . . . This change of ministry—I am as hostile to the
measure which was the pretext for it as the King himself; but, having conceded that measure, the
King’s conduct is equally exceptionable. Neither the country nor the
Commons called for the change, and they were getting credit, and deserving it,
by the ‘Arms Bill,’ the blessed ‘Aboli

74

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

Ætat. 33.

tion of the Slave Trade,’ the projected reforms, and the projected plan
for educating the poor. And now their places are to be filled by a set of men
of tried and convicted incapacity, with an old woman at their head! But I must
refer you to my friend, Don Manuel Alvarez,
for the reason why there is always a lack of talents in the English Government.

“God bless you!

Yours in haste,

R. S.”

Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.

Henry Herbert Southey (1783-1865)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; educated at Edinburgh University, he was physician
to George IV, Gresham Professor of Medicine, and friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775-1850)
The son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, fourth baronet; educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxford, Robert Southey's friend and benefactor was a Whig MP for Old Sarum (1797)
and Montgomeryshire (1799-1850). He was president of the Board of Control (1822-28).